When you find out you’re pregnant, beyond wanting to know the gender and hear the heartbeat and all that good stuff, you start buying things. Things you need, things you don’t need. One thing I was so excited to do was decorate my daughter’s nursery (you know, that place with a crib that she never once slept in). Here was our original design. It was sweet and calming, slightly girly, but not too girly.

Well, the crib was recalled, so we ditched that, and when Lydia was about 15 months old, we got her a toddler bed. This was the original arrangement with the new bed.

We got her some girly bedding (she picked it out).

And we bought decals to match.

Then we switched things around a bit and came up with this room arrangement after realizing creepy people could look in her window and see her sleeping (on the rare occasion that she actually slept in her bed). The bed is off to the right.

This arrangement actually lasted us a while, until we decided to move Bryce into Lydia’s room. That’s when we took out the toddler bed, and placed this full-sized mattress on the floor in April of this year.

With the kids’ birthdays quickly approaching, I realized we needed to clear out some things and rearrange the room to make space for the kids’ new toys. I’m calling this “Phase 1″ of our latest makeover.

I removed the glider that my husband has been nagging me to remove forever. I also moved a cabinet to the garage to use for my craft supplies and brought in some colorful bins to sort their toys. Gotta love the disaster that often occurs when I take on cleaning projects!

So here’s how this looked organized.

This arrangement worked, but we decided the kids needed some real beds. We found the Kura bed at IKEA for just $99 and had to have it. Here’s what the bed looks like, straight out of the box. Snore…

I began by selecting a gender-neutral fabric that coordinated with the green in the room. I wanted something that connected with nature, but also child-friendly (without looking like baby nursery fabric). I found this Robert Kauffman fabric at a local fabric store and bought two yards to cover the two panels on the bed that could be seen.

I placed a layer of low-pile quilt batting (I think that’s what it’s called) on the panel, covered with this fabric, and used craft glue to hold it all in place.

In retrospect, I should’ve adhered it to the blue side of the panel so the white faced inward, but I attached it to the white side.

We constructed the bed by following the manufacturer’s directions.

And painted it white.

We flipped the bed upside-down to create bunk beds.

We were afraid Lydia could roll out of the bed, so we added a tent.

We rearranged the play area a bit to include that hanging toy holder and to make it so Bryce couldn’t climb on the furniture to get on the top bunk.

I also added some shelves above the dollhouse to display items (that are mostly breakable) and hung this year’s birthday photo.And I think their room is complete. The kids LOVE it! Lydia called it her “garden bedroom” (hence the title of the blog post). What do you think of the transformation??

Related Posts

Related

About Dr. Carrie Wells

Dr. Carrie Wells is a college instructor, blogger, wife, and work-at-home mother to two young children, Lydia (age 4) and Bryce (age 2). Dr. Wells graduated from the University of Florida in 2001 with a Bachelor’s degree in elementary education and in 2002 with a Master’s degree in special education. After teaching children ages 3 – 21 with varying abilities for several years, she completed her Doctorate in special education in 2008 from Nova Southeastern University. After becoming a mother in 2009, Dr. Wells began blogging as Huppie Mama, writing about child development, healthy eating, crafts, and natural living.

If you go to IKEA, they have the same bed set up both ways. When it’s a regular bed, they have curtains around it, hanging from the top of the frame. They also have it set up like a loft with toys underneath it. Love the versatility!

I am going to purchase this bed within the next month. I have looked, and researched all i could but your post really spoke to me. Probably because your children are similar in age to mine. So, I would really like your advice/opinion. Does your youngest try to climb it all the time? Will the top fit a standard twin mattress or do I need a specific ikea one? Lastly, is it difficult to make the top bed each day? Thanks so much in advance for your wisdom.

My youngest does climb to the top, but so far so good! It’s really low, maybe 4 feet tall, so even if he did fall, he most likely would not get injured. The bottom should fit a standard mattress, but for the top, I would use the Ikea mattress because it is lightweight and thin. That way, there’s still a rim around the bed so your child can’t roll out. If you had a thicker mattress, it may cause accidents. As for making the bed, since it’s under the tent, we kinda just throw the blanket on and call it a day Nobody can really see inside.

Did you have to prime the wood before painting? Also, once you covered the panels with batting and fabric, was the install tricky? We currently have the bed for my older daughter and would like to transform it as my younger is ready to move into the bottom. Thanks!

Hi, Hallee! I got a semi-gloss primer & paint in one. The install was not tricky at all after batting and fabric. Just make sure the batting does not go all the way to the edge. Good luck modifying it! It’s such a fun project

Lovely, consider using slats for your bottom mattress. I have read that mattresses need to have air flow around them in order to be safe for the person breathing in the chemicals that can build up without air flow. Again, lovely work.

Hi. Which size foam mattress did you buy from Ikea? I have a new 5 1/2 spring mattress I just bought and wanted to put it up top, but didn’t know if that would work. It’s a cheaper mattress, but well made so I hate to buy a new one.

I bought the IKEA twin size mattress. I’m not sure if it is a standard twin or a custom twin. My concerns with using a different mattress would be: Does the mattress sit well in the bed frame so the child can’t roll out – and – is it too heavy for the wooden slats?

Privacy Policy: Personal identification information may be collected from users when voluntarily submitted to improve this site. Non-personal identification information about users may be collected, which may include browser name, type of computer, and technical information, to share with business partners, trusted affiliates, and advertisers. Information will never be sold.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us at huppiemama@gmail.com

This document was last updated on May 12, 2014

Email Address

Dr. Carrie Wells is a wife and mother of two with a background in special education. Topics of interest to her include child development, natural living, healthy eating, fashion, and beauty.